Global Warming Update

This update on one of my favorite subjects - the global warming hoax:

The first article is about an Irishman who gets it, UK MP and Environment Minister Sammy Wilson.  Wilson calls the money spent trying to reduce carbon emissions "a giant con."  He voiced his opinion that "in 20 years' time we will look back at the whole climate change debate and ask ourselves how on earth were we ever conned into spending billions of pounds which are going into this without any kind of rigorous examination of the background, the science, the implications of it all."

That question will certainly be asked.  But I think we already have the answer . . . liberals.

The second article actually shows a believable reason why the earth has been cooling (yes my environmentalist friends - cooling) for the past two years . . . decreased solar activity.

Is there any chance that Al Gore will admit that something outside human control could be having more effect on the planet than even his carbon footprint?

The second article is noteworthy for one other reason . . . a speech from Barack Obama's science advisor-to-be is referenced.  In that speech, John Holden (shown here) listed "limiting population" at the top of his ten solutions for global warming.  What are people?  Parasites?  A plague on the planet?

Watch out for "population control" measures from the Obama administration.

Changing winds at the GOP?

Republican National Committee Vice Chairman James Bopp, Jr., and Oregon party member Solomon Yue will offer a resolution next month that the Washington Times reports will accuse "President Bush and congressional Republican leaders of embracing "socialism."

While I might (or might not) quarrel with the verb, I don't disagree with the sentiment.  The GOP in Washington has abandoned the right in favor of "centrist" or "populist" or "bipartisan" leftist policies.

And that has to change.

As Yue put it, "we can't be a party of small government, free markets and low taxes while supporting bailouts and nationalizing industries, which lead to big government, socialism and high taxes at the expense of individual liberty and freedoms."

He's absolutely right.

The Republican Party must be conservative again or it will fade into history.

Absence makes the readership grow fonder?

To those of you who expect your daily dose of conservatism from the SLC - and haven't been getting it - I do apologize.  While I do enjoy blogging, it is far from the most important pat of my life.  In recent days and weeks, the time that I have spent on those other parts of my life has significantly increased pushing this site to the back burner.  Unless I suddenly find a way to carve more than 24 hours out of a single day, I do not expect things to change in the near future.

For the months since this blog was created, I have been more-or-less committed to posting five days each week.  I no longer feel committed (even if some say that I should be).

SLC will not go dormant.  And I have not been silenced.  I will continue to post when time allows.

Thanks to the readers for reading - and for understanding.

Global Warming - Vegas style

The global warming crowd is lying low these days.  For good reason.  Hopefully, sooner or later, the world will realize that the facts simply don't support the environmentalists' caterwauling.    

Voices of sanity are also rising above the din.  CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers is one of the latest.  In this story posted by the Business & Media Institute, Myers points out that human beings are probably incapable of warming the planet.  In fact, Myers said, "to think that we could affect weather all that much is pretty arrogant."

Dr. Jay Lehr, described in the same story as "an expert in environmental policy" brought facts to the debate.  He is quoted as saying that "if we go back really, in recorded human history, in the 13th Century, we were probably 7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than we are now and it was a very prosperous time for mankind."

Lehr's data shows that the planets temperature has risen and fallen throughout time, even before the industrial revolution and apoplectic fits from former vice presidents over greenhouse gas emissions.

With a concerted effort, human beings might be able to marginally affect temperatures on Planet Earth.  But . . . to think that we're so mighty that what we're doing now is causing global warming is, indeed, arrogant.

Pro-Life Pastor has opportunity at Obama Inauguration

Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, has been tapped to deliver the invocation at Barack Obama's Inauguration on January 20.  Dr. Warren is unabashedly Pro-Life.  The President-elect is certainly not.  

My initial reaction to this news was disappointment.  I was disappointed to hear that a powerful Pro-Life leader would be seen on the same dais as a man who supports - or at the very least failed to oppose - infanticide.

But after thinking about about it, my disappointment faded into indifference, and now I'm even beginning to be a bit, probably naively, hopeful . . . hopeful that buried within the invocation will be a petition for mercy on our nation for the sins committed against the unborn and a request for a divine hand to guide our new leaders on life issues.

Dr. Warren has an opportunity here.  Will he take it?

George W. Bush . . . off the deep end

Today, I'm quite thankful for the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, which limits individuals to two terms as President.  No, I'm not happy that Barack Obama will be taking office but it is definitely time for George W. Bush to leave.

Today, President Bush admitted that he has "abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system."  (Link to story here.)

What's next?  Abandoning the principles of limited government to save federalism?  Oh, wait, that's already been done.

Maybe abandoning principles of freedom to protect the Bill of Rights?

Back in 2000, it sure seemed like we were electing a conservative.  And President Bush, to his credit, has done some things right.  But it sure seems like he fell into the D.C. trap and has been sliding to the left since his arrival, doesn't it?

Tom Coburn Gets It - sort of

According to Oklahoma's Republican Senator Tom Coburn, the United Auto Workers union is "solely" to blame for the failure of negotiations over the proposed Big Three bailout.  (Link to story here.)

Coburn told CNSNews.com that "all we asked [of the UAW] was, 'Just give us a date at which you will have competitive wage rates'" with non-union foreign automakers' plants in the U.S.  But the union refused to consider renegotiating their contract with General Motors.  The union would, apparently, rather see GM go down than to take a pay cut to get their wages back in line with reason.

Coburn is right on the point he's making.  But I do have one problem . . . it seems that he thinks the government bailout is a good idea.  If he opposes the idea in principle but is simply working to tweak what he feels is inevitable - then he gets it - without reservation.

Leave our drinks alone!

Facing a budget deficit, New York governor David Patterson, a Democrat, is reaching out to do what Democrats tend to do . . . raising taxes.  In addition to increasing taxes on hospitals and on insurance policies, Patterson is proposing a "fat tax" on non-diet soda.  (Link to story here.)

Yes, that's right, Pepsi and Coke will now join cigarettes and alcohol as "sins" ripe for their own special tax.  What's next?  Candy?  Cookies?  Hamburgers?  Why not, after all, couldn't more revenue be raised by taxing anything and everything fattening?

The number one reason, of course, for the fat tax in New York is to take more money from the people who earned it to allow the government to spend it.  But the reason given is to protect the public health by forcing a healthier lifestyle.  Hogwash!

The government needs to stop using the tax code in an effort to dictate citizens' behavior.

Get out of our lives and our kitchens and let us eat and drink what we what to eat and drink.  Governor Patterson (and your ilk) . . . leave us alone!

Just adding another link here to show you how out-of-control Gov. Patterson's tax proposals are.  12/16/08.  SLC.

Barack Obama: A legend before his time

Earlier this month, a St. Louis City alderman (Kacie Starr Triplett) proposed designation of Delmar Boulevard as "Barack Obama Boulevard."  (Link to KSDK story here.)  The idea to name a street in honor of a man who hasn't done ANYTHING yet was, of course, just plain silly and - because of other things going on - didn't even warrant a mention in this space.

But the Obama legend is already (and still) growing.  Since my Christmas shopping is not yet finished, I was perusing this weekend's Target ad when, what to my wondering eyes should appear but Barack, a children's book by Jonah Winter.  (See some of the book for yourself, here.)

Let me repeat, HE HASN'T DONE ANYTHING YET.  But he's got a children's book about his life on the shelves at Target, on sale this week.

I happened to make a Target run today and took a look at Barack while I was there.  I almost lost my lunch.

Winter dedicates the book to Obama, "with much love and admiration" and proceeds to tell the "story" of this man "whose history-making presidential candidacy was largely due to the quality of his character" and "achieved greatness."

Obama hasn't even taken his oath of office yet and his cult of personality's primer is in print.

Two more photos . . . just for fun

The Company Obama Keeps

While attempting to distance himself from his one-time political pal, Rod Blagojevich, there is no way that Barack Obama can distance himself from Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago Democrat hand-picked by Obama to serve as his White House chief of staff.

Unfortunately for Obama, Emanuel connects him to Blagojevich.  This morning, Emanuel refused to answer questions about whether or not he was the Obama "advisor" named in the criminal complaint against the governor.  That Obama "advisor" apparently suggested that if Blagojevich appointed a friend of Obama's, Valerie Jarrett, to the U.S. Senate that Blagojevich would would be rewarded - but not immediately - because rewarding him now wouldn't look good.  But Blagojevich didn't want to wait and went ballistic.  

Was Emanuel offering to compensate Blagojevich down the road for a political favor now?  And, if so, was he doing so on his own or under orders?

Serious questions deserve serious investigation.  Can the media be counted on to conduct it?

Stay tuned.

Jim DeMint: Still telling it like it is.

South Carolina Republican Senator Jim DeMint is still right on the money when discussing the bailout of Detroit's Big Three automakers.  Check out this piece from the Business & Media Institute.

DeMint is warning of the consequences of this ill-advised bailouts.  First, he suggests that "we're going to have riots" of workers who lose their jobs in industries not bailed out.  Those workers, logically, will wonder why their job wasn't saved by a government bailout when others were.  And who could blame them?

Second, the bailouts (of the financial industry, auto industry, and any other sector that follows) "will result in inflation" because of the amount of money borrowed and/or printed anew to finance it.

The government should not be in the business of propping up some employers (and their employees) while letting others fail.  And since there isn't sufficient money to prop up all employers, the only fair option is keeping their fingers out of industry - if one goes bankrupt, that's why we have bankruptcy laws.  And printing money is not an answer that our economy can live with.

And who is really to blame for pushing the Big Three bailout this far?  DeMint has that answer too . . . "the primary driver behind this is the unions because bankruptcy allows the auto companies to basically restructure all their contracts . . . then essentially the unions lose all their leverage."

A politician telling the truth is like a breath of fresh air.

As crooked as can be?

The news arose today that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has been arrested and charged with corruption.  And the news was no shock to anyone who has done business across the Mississippi.

In a nutshell, Blagojevich is accused of offering to appoint the highest bidder (or the hand-picked choice of the highest bidder) to Barack Obama's now vacant U.S. Senate seat.

Blagojevich has been accused of corruption before.  And Illinois has been viewed as corrupt before, but this might just take the cake.

It looks like one more corrupt Chicago politician could be going to the penitentiary . . . but a fellow Chicago politician and a friend of Blagojevich's will be moving to the White House next month.

Barack Obama is connected to the governor of his home state.  According to Jake Tapper of ABC News, Obama "not only endorsed Blagojevich in 2002 and 2006, [he also] served as a top adviser to the Illinois governor in his first 2002 run for the state house."  Obama and Rahm Emanuel (Obama's selection for White House chief of staff in his administration) were two of the four people who "met weekly" to "lay out the general election" of Blagojevich in 2002.  This, according to Emanuel himself, though he later retracted the statement - downplaying their connection to Blagojevich.

The question is this, should be judged by the company he keeps?  Especially if that company includes Jehrimiah Wright, William Ayers, and Rod Blagojevich?

Terrorists admit their guilt at Guantanamo Trial

The soon-to-be-no-longer-alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States of America, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, stated today that he intends to confess to his crimes.  (Read the Associated Press story here.)  Four other complicit terrorists dropped their defenses as well.  According to the AP reporter, these men are "in effect daring the Pentagon to grant their wish for martyrdom."

Here's to accepting that dare.

Maybe God will have mercy on these mens' souls . . . they should be glad that it is up to Him and not me.

A Car Czar . . . what is this country coming to?

Apparently, Detroit's "Big Three" are ready to sell their capitalist souls to the federal government for $15 billion.  (Link to story here.)  

In exchange for the short-term bailout, the automakers will be saddled with an overseer, dubbed the "car czar," who will be "in charge of setting guidelines for an industrywide overhaul, with the power to revoke the loans if the carmakers [aren't] taking sufficient steps to reinvent themselves."  In other words, General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler won't be running General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler anymore.  Instead, the feds will be running them all.  And why not, the government has already claimed a stake in the banks.

Brilliant, don't you think, central planning has worked so well everywhere it has been tried.

Memo to Congress:  Please stop the madness.

The itsy-bitsy spider went up the water spout. . .

A children's classic, performed here by Missouri Governor Matt Blunt.

Liberal Gift Idea #438

As we approach Christmas, our "friends" at Planned Parenthood have decided to offer "holiday vouchers," which can be used to pay for abortions.  (Link to story here.)

How better to celebrate the birth of the Christ Child than to stuff someone's Christmas stocking with an abortion gift certificate.

The concept is inappropriate and disgusting . . . but what would you expect from Planned Parenthood?

Matt Blunt's Legacy? Missouri's Financial Strength?

I've haven't been a big fan of Matt Blunt since he took office.  But perhaps the conservative principles and spending priorities that he brought to the state budget deserve some recognition.

Click here to check out Tony Messenger's piece from today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch with the intriguing title . . . "Missouri not hurting as much as some, thanks to Gov. Blunt."

"Obama Plans Largest Building Program Since 1950s"

That was the Bloomberg Press headline for a story yesterday that covered President-elect Barack Obama's speech indicating that he plans to "make the 'single largest new investment' in roads, bridges and public buildings since the Eisenhower Administration."

Question:  Where's the money to pay for it going to come from?

A sad solution in North St. Louis

Today, Jake Wagman at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that an alderman from the City's north side, Quincy Troupe, is actively encouraging law-abiding residents to buy guns and learn to use them to defend themselves since he no longer has confidence that the police department can or will protect citizens of his ward.

In the car this afternoon/evening, I heard Mark Reardon interviewing Troupe on KMOX.  Troupe seems fed up with the violence in his ward.  And who can blame him.  The Post reported that there were nine homicides there in the first ten months of the year.

But Troupe seemed more frustrated with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department's response to the rampant violence.  Response times for reported crimes are so slow that the department is becoming irrelevant in Troupe's ward.  Some constituents, he claimed, aren't even calling the police anymore to report crimes because doing so would do no good.

If the police can't - or won't - defend you or your family, what is a responsible person to do?  There is only one answer and it is clear - do the job yourself.

The solution is sad, but Quincy Troupe can't think of another one.  Unfortunately, neither can I.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me a third time?

George H. W. Bush talked like a conservative when he was running for election.  He promised not to raise taxes and raised taxes once in office.

George W. Bush talked like a conservative when he was running for election.  He managed to outspend his father and everyone else.

Now, according to Marc Ambinder, Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and next in line to the Bush Family Throne, is considering a run for the U.S. Senate.  And, while sounding like a moderate on immigration, Jeb is following his family's playbook.  Ambinder writes that "Bush said that Republicans can't give up on conservatism and . . . that Republicans 'can't be Democrat-lite.  We can't just 'get along.''"

Jeb's words are right on the money, of course.  

But how many times will conservatives keep giving Bushes chances?

The Filibuster Lives! --- Updated

I know that Thanksgiving has passed but today is another day of thanks for conservatives, Republicans, and anyone else fearful of unchecked Democrats running roughshod over Washington beginning in January 2009.  

Thanks today go out to voters in Georgia who re-elected Republican Saxby Chambliss by a wide margin ensuring that no matter how many votes Al Franken "finds" in Minnesota, Democrats will not have a filibuster-proof sixty seat majority.

Wednesday afternoon update:  Just who does Senator Chambliss credit for his big win?  Sarah Palin, who flew in and campaigned around Georgia on his behalf Monday.  According to Chambliss, Palin "is a dynamic lady, a great administrator, and I think she's got a great future in the Republican Party."

Sounds to me like Chambliss will be standing in line, behind me, to offer his endorsement when Palin announces her 2012 candidacy for president.  Who else will be in that line when it does finally form?

Not my fault

Blog entries on this site over the next few days will be irregular and possibly sporadic.  But it's not my fault (my wife might disagree).  Blame the stork instead.

Reading Material for 2009

An Australian professor of geology, Ian Plimer, gave a speech this week titled Human-Induced Climate Change - A Lot of Hot Air.  Plimer's contention is that "climates always change . . . climates have always changed and they always will."  (The speech is discussed in this column by Miranda Devine in yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald.)

According to Dr. Plimer, this change results from planetary wobbles, the varying distance between the sun and the earth, variations in solar radiation, etc., not from greenhouse gasses produced human society.

Plimer showed that the earth's climate has always been fluctuating for at least 110,000 years, when the "Pleistocene Ice Age" began.  This period ended with the 800-year-long "Bolling warm period" about 14,700 years ago, which preceded the "Older Dryas cooling," which was followed by the "Allerod warming," and then "the Little Ice Age" from 1300 a.d. to 1850.  Since then, the earth has experienced "one of the most stable climate periods in history."

In addition, Dr. Plimer has completely debunked the idea that increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere results in global warming by simply charting CO2 levels and temperature.  The chart shows "little correlation" and "demonstrates one of the 'lessons from history' to which geologists are privy:  'There is no relationship between CO2 and temperature."

Apparently the global warming nuts aren't privy to geologists.

Dr. Plimer has a new book coming out in 2009, Heaven and Earth:  The Missing Science of Global Warming.

Is there any chance that we can get Al Gore to add it to his summer reading list?

Bringing the troops home . . . by 2011

I believe that President Bush was correct in refusing to set a timetable or specific deadline to withdraw troops from Iraq.  Spelling out how long one side is willing to fight creates an incentive for the opposing side to hunker down in a defensive mode and wait for the withdrawal before stepping into the power vacuum.

On the other hand, I believe that I have long believed that if the Iraqis no longer want American troops on the ground, we shouldn't be there.  If they don't want or need our help anymore then we shouldn't be spending our money or placing our heroes' lives on the line.

Now the Iraqi Parliament, with broad-based support from Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds, has approved a security agreement that specifically authorizes the presence and action of U.S. forces within their country's sovereign borders.  But it also sets out a timetable "requiring American troops to withdraw from cities and towns by June 30, 2009, and for all troops to leave the country by the end of 2011."  (Link to New York Times story here.)

That's good enough for me.  If Iraq no longer wants or needs the help of the American military, no problem.  Best wishes.  Good luck.

Let's just all hope and pray that when American troops do finally leave, they never have to go back.

Happy Thanksgiving . . . and please remember who to thank for your blessings this year.

American culture has done a "great" job of secularizing Christian holidays.  Christmas often seems more about Santa and his elves than the birth of Jesus Christ.  Easter's celebrations of the resurrection have been replaced by bonnets and bunnies.

But the secular attack on Thanksgiving has been more subtle.  This year I began to notice that most of the references to the holiday on television acknowledged the need to be thankful or even to give thanks for blessings received.  

But each reference was incomplete . . .  

If we are to "be thankful" . . . who are we supposed to thank?

If we are to "give thanks" . . . to whom do we give our thanks?

If we "received blessings" . . . who blessed us?

None of these questions are answered in public in American culture.  Keep an eye on public officials tomorrow or on news anchors or your politically correct friends.  God won't receive a mention.

And that's a shame.  After all, the holiday of Thanksgiving is a date set aside to give thanks to God and recognize the blessings that God, yes, GOD, has bestowed upon us all.

George Washington proclaimed the first Thanksgiving.  After a joint committee of both Houses of Congress recommended the holiday, Washington recognized that it was "the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and to humbly implore His protection and favor" and set aside November 26, 1789, to be a day "devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks."

Though the P.C. crowd won't mention God tomorrow, try not to forget Him.

Christmas decorations banned at Florida University

The battle between political correctness and free exercise of religion - particularly Christianity - has waged in the United States for years now.  And, unfortunately, political correctness has been winning many of the public battles lately.  

P.C. won its latest victory today at Florida Gulf Coast University, where the school's administration has banned Christmas decorations from all public places, including even private office doors.  (Link to story here.)

Enough of this madness.  No one has the right to be free from being irrationally offended.  And, I'm sorry, if a Christmas tree, Santa, a nativity, a wreath, or a menorah for that matter, offends you - you're irrational.

On the other hand, every American has a constitutionally protected right to freely exercise their religion.  The First Amendment clearly and concisely reads:  "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."  

Since the religion clauses have been applied to the states and state institutions (like universities) through the Fourteenth Amendment, aren't these administrators violating the constitution by prohibiting individuals from decking the halls?  Where's the ACLU when you need it?

Support for a socialist president eroding in America - South America that is

Parties opposing Venezuela's Socialist President Hugo Chavez gained ground in elections held over the weekend.

U.S. government pledges $7.76 TRILLION DOLLARS for financial bailout

$700 billion wasn't enough . . . not even close.  According to this Bloomberg report, "the U.S. government [the Federal Reserve, FDIC, and Treasury Department] is prepared to provide more than $7.76 trillion . . . to rescue the financial system after credit markets seized up 15 months ago."

The numbers that we're talking about are too big for individuals, even individuals like Bill Gates or Warren Buffet to conceptualize.  But think of it this way, "the money pledged is equivalent to $24,000 for every man, woman and child in the country.  It's nine times what the U.S. has spent so far on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

This is staggering.  Absolutely staggering.

The government doesn't have the money (not even with all the tax increases or growth you can imagine) yet it is jumping into management/manipulation of the economy headfirst.

The madness must stop.  And it will - one way or the other:  the government must stand aside and allow the free market to operate or face its own, inevitable, bankruptcy.

One nation under God

Every Sunday morning millions of Americans attend worship services.  This is, after all, a nation under God.  Our President-elect, however, has not recently been among the millions in church.  Barack Obama has not attended a single worship service since before the election.

Could it be that he's too busy?  Well, first of all, how can a human being created by God be too busy to devote time to worship the creator?  Second, Presidents Bush and Clinton each found the time to go to church on the Sundays after they were elected, why can't Obama?  And third, he's got the time, he's just chosen to use it to play basketball.

Priorities?

The election is OVER . . . remove your bumper stickers, please!

Elisa Crouch and Ken Leiser at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch hit the nail on the head today writing that "with the election in the rear-view mirror, it's time to do something about those bumper stickers.  . . . It's time to move on."

Hear hear!

Why on earth would anybody want to continue to campaign for a candidate when the election is finished?  The winners don't need your help and the losers can't use your support.

If you've still got an Obama sticker . . . why?  Are you just gloating?  Do you think that it makes you cool?  You supported the winner . . . yippee!  So did, unfortunately, lots of other people.  But most of them are smart enough to realize that your guy's performance in office over the next four years will have significantly more influence on the 2012 election than a sticker on the back of their Prius.  

And if you've still got a McCain sticker . . . why?  Are you so in need of attention that you seek out the amused looks, jeers, and taunts of Democrats buoyed by their candidate kicking your man's you-know-what?  Maybe you just don't want to be blamed for all the bad things that you think will happen when Obama takes office.  Well, guess what, nobody's going to blame you.  Nobody cares about who you voted for.  And why you'd want to continue to tout your support for the RINO who took the GOP down to defeat is beyond me.  It wouldn't surprise me if you still had a Rams jersey on your Christmas list.

And if you're still driving around with a bumper sticker from 2004 or before, you're in serious need of professional help.

The time has come.  Shed the campaign stickers America.

Has the media figured out that global warming is a crock?

Maybe . . . NBC, which owns The Weather Channel, fired the entire staff of the cable network's environmental program, "Forecast Earth," which "was the sole program on TWC that focused on global climate change."  (Link to story here.)

But probably not . . . the more likely cause is economic.  Even so, we should take that as a positive sign.  If a global warming scare show is not profitable, that's a good sign that large numbers of folks are not tuning in.  And if folks aren't tuning in, there's a good chance they're not buying into the climate change agenda.

Obama's spending plan quadrupling before inauguration day?

During the campaign, Barack Obama proposed a second economic stimulus package with a price tag of $175 billion.  But on television this morning, Obama's senior economic advisor "confirmed the plan would be significantly bigger."  (Link to Financial Times story here.)

How much bigger, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) gleefully "predicted it could be as much as $500 billion-$700 billion."  That's FOUR times more than Obama proposed during the campaign.

He's not even in office yet and Obama's already quadrupling his plans to spend our money on his new-New Deal.

George W. Bush set the record for outrageous government spending (with lots of help from Congress) but it looks like that record is about to be shattered.

Al Gore's latest pet theory

The global warming crowd's King Nut, Al Gore, has now taken up a new theory - suggested in a book by Jared Diamond - that "the Mayan civilization might have collapsed due to environmental disasters" including "global climatic shifts."

Interesting.  Makes me wonder about all the fossil fuels the Mayans burned.  What must their carbon footprint have been?  And all those Mayan automobiles and coal-fired power plants.  The pollution must have been incredible - to cause climate change.  After all, aren't those the things that Gore and his pals have been telling us are causing climate change now and probably the end of our civilization?

Don't you think that a "smart" guy - a Nobel Prize winner even - would have sense enough to realize that if a pre-industrial civilization experienced climate change that that fact, if true, would cut against the current theory/belief that modern humans' carbon emissions are the cause of the "problem"?

Will this be that crisis that Joe Biden was talking about?

The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been inspecting Iran's nuclear facilities, has reported that Iran has 1,390 pounds of low-enriched uranium - enough that, if purified, is enough to make an atomic bomb.  (Link to story here.)

If this is the precursor to the crisis Joe Biden predicted?

If so, let's all hope - and pray - that President Obama will have the ability to handle it.

Mitt Romney Gets it

With this Op-Ed in yesterday's New York Times, Mitt Romney, the former Republican governor of Massachusetts and Republican candidate for president, showed that he gets it.

Romney, native of Detroit and son of an auto executive, makes the case that "a managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the [auto] industry needs."  It is likely the only way that excess costs can be shed to make American vehicles competitive.

If the Big Three "get the bailout," Romney says, "you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye.  It won't go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed."

On the other hand, "without the bailout, Detroit will need to radically restructure itself.  . . . Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check."

You got that right Mitt!

While Romney may have been fared no better than Barack Obama in November's election, wouldn't it have been nice to see a conservative try?

Conversion of an Abortionist

Stojan Adasevic was a "champion of abortion."  The Serbian doctor performed approximately 48,000 abortions over 26 years, sometimes 35 in a single day.

But no more.  Thank God.

I heard about this story on the radio today (make that yesterday) and went googling for it tonight.  The story originally appeared in La Razon, a Spanish daily newspaper.  I didn't find the original story (since I don't speak Spanish it wouldn't have done much good if I had found it) but I did find a story about the story from the Catholic News Agency.  

To read the full CNA story, click here.  It is excerpted below, and quotes La Razon:

Ultrasounds allowing the fetus to be seen did not arrive [in Serbia] until the 80s, but they did not change [Adasevic's] opinion.  Nevertheless, he began to have nightmares.

In describing his conversion, Adasevic "dreamed about a beautiful field full of children and young people who were playing and laughing, from 4 to 24 years of age, but who ran away from him in fear.  A man dressed in a black and white habit stared at him in silence.  The dream was repeated each night and he would wake up in a cold sweat.  One night he asked the man in black and white who he was.  'My name is Thomas Aquinas,' the man in his dream responded.  Adasevic, educated in communist schools, had never heard of the Dominican genius saint.  He didn't recognize the name."

"Why don't you ask me who these children are?"  St. Thomas asked Adasevic in his dream.

"They are the little ones you killed with your abortions," St. Thomas told him.

"Adasevic awoke in amazement and decided not to perform any more abortions," the article stated.

"That same day a cousin came to the hospital with his four months-pregnant girlfriend, who wanted to get her ninth abortion--something quite frequent in the countries of the Soviet block.  The doctor agreed.  Instead of removing the fetus piece by piece, he decided to chop it up and remove it as a mass.  However, the baby's heart came out still beating.  Adasevic realized then that he had killed a human being."

. . .

Today the Serbian doctor continues to fight for the lives of the unborn.

Watch this video. Please.

Occasionally, my wife watches The Oprah Winfrey Show.  Today, she had a segment queued up for me to watch.  I know, I know, tell all the jokes you want . . . but I'm exceedingly glad that she had me watch the clip.  My only complaint was that she allowed me to watch it when the box of tissues in the living room was empty.  I had to go to the bathroom down the hall to dry my eyes.

The Oprah segment was actually showing a video from youtube about the extraordinary life of a very special child.

Click here to watch that youtube video yourself.

Every child is a gift from God.

Every baby has a reason for being.

Every life is worth protecting.

At least the right candidate won one election this year!

Congratulations to Albert Pujols on winning his second Most Valuable Player award!

(Link to St. Louis Post-Dispatch story here.)

Madam Secretary?

Global warming data wrong again!

NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies previously announced that October 2008 was the hottest October on record.  Great news for the global warming crowd, eh?  Too bad it wasn't true.

As reported in the London Telegraph, the GISS used September's temperature records instead of October's for a large chunk of Russia.  

This huge error calls into question all of GISS's numbers because in explaining their "mistake" the group's spokesman claimed that it happened because GISS got the Russian temperature figures from an outside source and "did not have resources to exercise proper quality control over the data it was supplied with."

This is a big deal because GISS is one of four sources relied upon by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for global temperature data and, "the most widely quoted, since they consistently show higher temperatures than the others."

The devil is in the details, but details don't seem to matter to the environmentalist nuts.  As long as the data supports their conclusions, who cares if it is accurate.

Wouldn't you think that illegal immigrants who admit that they are in the United States Illegally would be deported rather than being released?

Well, you would be wrong.  Check out this alarming feature from today's Houston Chronicle.

The sheriff of Harris County, where Houston sits, Tommy Thomas, explained that, "in a perfect world, I'd like to see our borders secured to where we have someone we find to be here illegally, we turn them over to [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and have them deported.  But that's not something that's happening at this day and time."

It sure ought to be happening at this day and time.  It doesn't seem too much to ask that if someone's here illegally and gets caught they should be on a fast plane or slow boat home - as soon as possible.

Jim Inhofe gets it too

Like his colleague Jim DeMint, Oklahoma Republican Senator Jim Inhofe gets it.  He's asking Congress to pull the plug on the $700 billion financial bailout and save whatever is left of it.  

Inhofe has called out Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson for selling us all a bill of goods.  Paulson, Inhofe now sees, got "blank check" bailout authority from Congress on the premise that the government would be buying up high risk assets from troubled fragile banks and other institutions, "then he didn't do it.  . . . That's enough reason right there" to revoke Paulson's authority.

Well said Senator.  But if that wasn't blunt enough, Inhofe plainly and simply accused Paulson of lying to Congress.  Whenever people come to Congress and advised that something "has to be done and has to be done immediately, you have to sit back and take a deep breath and nine times out of ten they are not telling the truth.  And this is one of those nine times."

Inhofe also opposes bailing out the "Big Three" Detroit automakers.  "If we keep on nursing a broken system," he said, "then we cant expect to have a different result come later on.  . . . I think we have to draw the line someplace, and the time is here."

Republicans in the U.S. Senate have the chance to use their positions to rebuild a conservative and principled party.  Jim DeMint and Jim Inhofe seem ready to lead.

Jim DeMint gets it

Jim DeMint, Republican Senator from South Carolina, has a pretty good handle on why his party lost big in 2008 elections . . . George W. Bush, Ted Stevens, and John McCain.

Bush and Stevens led the way for expansion of government and wasteful spending.

McCain betrayed conservative principles by sponsoring a flawed campaign finance reform package, proposing "amnesty for illegals,"  supporting a cap-and-trade program to fight "global warming," opposing oil drilling in ANWR, and backing the $700 billion bailout.

"Americans do prefer a traditional conservative government," DeMint said.  "They just did not believe Republicans were going to give it to them."

You're absolutely right Senator DeMint.  Right on the money!

Help Wanted

Dallas (Texas) Independent School District seeks teachers for bilingual classes.  Legal presence in the United States not required.  Social security number not required (fake # will be provided by the District).

Where do I get my money?

First, the banks got the federal government to bail them out.  Next, the automakers got in line for their handout.  Now, the cities are getting in line.  The mayors of Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Phoenix have asked Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson for a cut of the $700 billion bailout package to help ease them through the current financial crisis.

The economy is affecting all of us, of course, SLC included.  So where do I get in line for my share of the dough?

Palin no longer has McCain holding her back

Sarah Palin is no longer John McCain's running mate.  Instead she is the charismatic, conservative governor of Alaska, and a frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012.  And, she is no longer constrained by McCain's "moderate" policies and talking points. 

Today Palin spoke out at the Republican Governors Association convention in Miami.  She spoke out against "additional taxpayer bailouts" for companies, corporations, and "perhaps even states now who may be standing in line with their hands out."  She called for more economic "accountability and personal responsibility" suggesting "conservative solutions to these economic challenges."

The "real" Sarah Palin - the one not watered down by her association with a "moderate" presidential candidate - is ready to shine.

(Link to CNN story here.)